Did anyone else notice that Spike was completely unimportant in this episode? I was honestly hoping that they'd improve his character into something likeable this season, but I'll settle for pushing him to the side.
I see why they aren't writing letters to Princess Celestia anymore... Spoiler: Letter to the Princess Twi : Dear Princess Celestia, today we stopped a cult leader and saved a town from her oppression. After we tracked down this cult leader, she stopped me in the middle of my friendship speech. It looks like she didn't learn anything. She ran away again and we didn't give chase, figuring that she'd learn the lesson on her own. There's no way this could ever come back and haunt us in the future. Celestia: ........ son of a...
Dear Princess Celestia, Today we discovered that a powerful and dangerous cult leader has been operating under your nose for years. Way to stay on top of things. -Twilight
So, we have a town full of ponies that all have the same haircut, all have the same cutie mark, and are unable to speak their minds, out of fear of angering their leader, who they practically worship, when in reality that leader has been lying to their faces this whole time, and not only that, but they are isolated beyond all belief, having no access to the outside world, and are never allowed to leave... ...sound familiar?
Oh!I get that Soviet joke now!XD ... Anyway, this was a great episode. I was hoping for Fluttershy to be a hero anyhow... And Spike too.GIVE US SPIKE!!! 8.7/10
I really liked the second half; the way it actually fleshed out some ponies other than the mane 6, elevated what would in any other episode be background ponies from the role of furniture, to actual characters in their own right.
Wow, that is one town I would never want to visit. I would have gone nuts. I actually would have lost my mind if I lost all my talents and got locked in a room for days on end with no sleep. That was... ...uncanny as Hell. Not even dark, no violence or anything, just, wow, made me really glad I wasn't actually there experiencing it. I guess that's a good thing? They took some creative risks, and I really loved the eerieness of when the mane six began to notice everyone watching them in the restaraunt scene, but I would have gone nuts. - - Auto Merge - - I think that was for plot related reasons. Having Spike in the episode would have made Spike even more useless because by all logic he would be able to solve the plot within minutes, but they would have to come up with some lame excuse for him not being able to. You can't exactly "take away Spike's cutie mark", which is how the other main characters were rendered defenseless, so to speak, so the question would then become "why doesn't spike just use his fire powers to threaten the big fat commie?"
I really enjoyed that episode - it's a good start to a season. Really sets the stage for the possibilities for the map and Twilight's new castle. My girl Fluttershy came through again. I'm really stoked to see her overcoming her shyness bit by bit - I can certainly relate to being put out there for the good of others.
Let's see.... My podcast is examining "Dragonshy" this week (less than 20 minutes from now as of this post). We've got 82 more episodes to go if we combine 2-parters and include the two Equestria Girls. There are 52 weeks in a year and if we do a show every week, we won't get to season five until... carry the 30... October 29th, 2016. So stay tuned for Brony Quest's examination of this episode a year and a half from now!
New episodes of MLP:FiM on my birthday, whoo! I had to re-watch the S4 finale to prepare myself for these two episodes, and they did a great job transitioning over to S5. The new map is really exciting, because now we might get some world building and see locales outside of Equestria! I really want an episode where the Mane 6 visit the gryphon kingdom, and I would also like some Gilda redemption. With even more of a focus on friendship, and Gilda being one of just a few characters that haven't become fast friends with the Mane 6, I don't think the idea is too far-fetched. I'm also curious to see if they'll add more mythological creatures, or if they'll try to do anything with other characters and races from past MLP generations. I suppose that's enough on the speculations. Back to what I thought of the episode! I had a major Story of the Blanks/Stepford Wives vibe about this episode, and my intuition was pretty spot on. The songs were alright, but nothing that sticks with you. I like that the stereotype for each character wasn't done to the extreme. They seemed to balance that out well in this episode. The pacing was handled much better than a lot of other multi-part episodes (or even some regular episodes), and I really appreciated that the Mane 6 needed help at the end. It's always good to see the writers remind us that the primary cast isn't infallible. The escape pulled off by the villain of the episode certainly leaves some future appearances open. My only complaint about the villain is that they're yet another spellcaster. It would be nice to get a bit more variety in villains, or give them unique abilities (Queen Chrysalis being a good example of this). Overall, I found the episode enjoyable, and I'm excited about what this season will have in store for us.
Ugh finally back here again, I did intend to come back here yesterday when the episode aired but I have spent the whole rakkin frakkin week sick from a nasty flu. As for the episode I say its off to a better start then even last season for me, especially its big bad who might actually be this universes closest pony to A certain lovable benevolent great leader, but at the same time might actually be this series most complex villain. No seriously there is a lot of potential back story to Starlight Glimmer, she kind of reminded me of Amon from Legend of Korra with her Equalist (har!) mindset Edit: yipes this is a community i have not visted in eons, I joined so many of these things and plum forgot this one for so long. Got my wires crossed asd well, sheesh
Here are my thought. I'll put them in a Spoiler tag just in case. Spoiler: Spoiler That episode... was... interesting. I LOVED it. Unique and it had a different way of resolving it. It wasn't really resolved either with the villain getting away. I'm sure this sets up for the season finale and the "Cutie Mark Magic" thing. Or that's what I'm assuming. Either way, GREAT BEGINNING to the season and I can't wait to see more. My worries were unfounded once again. At least for now. :ahh: I enjoyed this beginning though.
I don't get why some people constantly say how Starlight wasn't all that evil. If depowering and brainwashing ponies (some even against their will) so she can rule over them isn't evil, then what is? Also, being able to take away other ponies talents and abilities seems pretty OP to me (the only thing worse would have been if Starlight was somehow able to use the collected abilities for herself). Honestly, do you really think that she believed in the whole equality thing? Then why the brainwashing? Why force other ponies to smile all the time? Why make up all the rules? And why wasn't her own house part of the equal sign in the village? To me, she looked more like a pony who was made fun of in her childhood once too often for not getting her cutie mark fast enough and has now found a way to get back at those who she thinks consider themselves superior because of their CMs (and that's why Diamond Tiara is the worst villain). But yeah, the episode... It was okay, I guess. Nothing really wrong with it, it had some good parts and the pacing was much better than many of the other two-parters, but as a whole it was just a bit too bleak for my taste. Didn't particularly care for Starlight Glimmer, either (and again with that kind of name? How long do you think will it take until Hasbro just goes and outright calls a character Anti-Twilight?).
How many more names can we make up for Celestia's other students: Dawnlight Gleaming, Dusky Afterglow, Sunrise Glamor, Moonlite Twinkle, Pale Moonshadow, all of these ponies would be less faithful to Celestia than Twilight Sparkle, so that means they're mostly wayward or evil. But are they more technically talented? Since Celestia only calls Twilight "Most Faithful" not "Most Skilled" or "Most Knowlegable" Maybe Equestria is just lousy with Celestia's poor students and their baby dragon slaves which are used for cleaning up and communication...
Ugh, yeah, they better not reveal in one of the future episodes that Starlight Glimmer was another one of Celestia's failed experiments former students in what they think is a shocking twist. That would just be stupid.
Yes, I do think she actually believed that whole equality thing. If she didn't, she would have gone like every other villain in the series and given up the guise once she was revealed to have a cutie mark while everyone else didn't. "Oh, bwahaha, now you have revealed my evil plan!" etc etc. No, she really thought taking the cutie marks away from those ponies was the best thing for them, and she never wavered from that viewpoint through the whole episode. The brainwashing? Obviously the ponies just hadn't seen the light, like she said in the episode. At least, that's what she believed. Forcing smiles? They were supposed to be happy with their lives. I'm not saying she was entirely mentally healthy, she may have wanted to create what she thought was a utopia, but since it wasn't really a utopia, she had to force the other ponies to pretend, to convince herself that it worked. The last part I agree with, but I don't think she's 'getting back at' ponies with cutie marks. I think she was just scarred by her childhood, and now really believes that cutie marks cause bullying and ruin friendship because of her experiences. So she takes them away from ponies trying to create a utopia without such bullying. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the inevitable return episode of Starlight Glimmer, it was revealed that she was bullied about her lack of cutie mark.
So maybe she doesn't see herself as evil. Big deal, a lot of horrible people don't see themselves as villains. They'll come up with all sorts of explanations and justifications on why they simply had to do what they did. It's an unusual approach for a cartoon series, sure, but just because she may be delusional doesn't mean that she only has the best interests of everyone else in mind. Nightmare Moon just wanted to be appreciated. Discord was into it just for fun. Chrysalis wanted to feed her hive. Starlight Glimmer wanted to enforce happiness in slavery. Justify it all you want, their actions were still evil.
I'm not saying that her actions weren't evil, I'm saying she wasn't evil. She was different from the others, because Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Tirek wanted what they wanted, and didn't care how they got it, didn't care about others. Chrysalis did care about her hive, so exception there. But Starlight is different because she wasn't hurting others to help herself. And I don't think she had the best interests of everyone else in mind, but I do think she had the best of intentions, even though we all know what they say about good intentions. Her real problem was that she could not see any other way but her own; a very real problem out in the world, really. Since the beginning of Season 4 I really have started respecting this show more and more, it's teaching morals that a lot of ADULTS could learn from.
She is evil. She is keeping everyone else down while keeping herself at the top. In my dungeons and dragons games; I often define an evil character by the fact that they will destroy a character, whether it is be physical, mental and/or emotional means to get what they want. They don't care who or what they hurt to get at their way. Oftentimes, evil characters are very short sighted and no matter their intentions, they don't see any other way besides their own to get results. She is destroying free will, which is emotional and mental destruction. She also tortures people, isolating others from the community is form of mental torture, to forcibly convert others into her of thinking. I've seen some theories stating that Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter franchise is one of the most evil characters ever created. The evidence they use is rather impressive. An evil character doesn't have to use big neon signs pointing to them saying "I'm Evil" for the character to be seen as evil. The actions always speak louder. One more thing. I was raised around the LDS church's, the Mormons, theology. While I don't consider myself a part of if it, I do hear it often. I distinctly remember that forcing people to be happy and do the right things was the plan of the devil according to their beliefs. It's also the plan of many dictators, including the leader of The Third Reich.
